The Bureau of Immigration (BI) warned Filipino migrants in the US against an alleged new trend of cryptocurrency scams targeting them.
According to BI Commissioner Joel Viado, one of the rescued Filipinos in scam hubs in Myawaddy, Myanmar disclosed an alleged new scheme where scammers are deceiving victims to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency accounts, promising them high returns with little to no risk.
The scam is allegedly targeting Filipino migrants in the US and employs various tactics including reaching out to the victims on social media to lure them to invest.
Once they transfer the money, the scammers may manipulate account balances to show fake profits and convince them to add more investments. The fraudsters will then disappear with the funds, leaving the victims unable to withdraw their supposed earnings.
“We wish to send this warning to our kababayans abroad not to fall prey to this new modus,” said Viado in a news release.
“The IACAT (inter-agency council against trafficking) is working to ensure that those who continue to victimize Filipinos face the harshest penalties of the law,” he said.
Authorities last week arrested two individuals allegedly involved in the recruitment and one of them was tagged as the “developer” of the new scam trend. The suspect supposedly volunteered to develop the new module for the scheme against Filipino-Americans. —VAL, GMA Integrated News
